Originally posted by: SteelSix
IMPRESSIONS
This is my first experience with ATI. I've owned nV cards since the birth of Geforce. With that said, a quik review is in order..
These cards feature good build quality, with a single slot solid copper heatsink. In one pic below you'll notice exaust vents on the side as well as the back of the heatsink. Pics we've seen don't easily reveal these additional slots. I'd say half the exaust blows thru these, directed towards side panel. Be sure you have the area open for ventillation. You'll see I mounted a 120mm fan near the front of the card avoiding the exaust slots.
The fans never spun up past default speed (whatever that is). There are no fan speed adjustments within CCC. Overclocking beyond 675 caused 3DMark to lock up so I kept them at 660 core. This card will need aftermarket cooling for higher overclocks. They run pretty warm. With good airflow they're idling at 61c, load temps were about 74c. Under load, the area of the heatsink you can touch will burn your digits after about two seconds. They were very stable however, zero lockups after I went to 660. One neat thing, they throttle down to 500 core 750 mem apparently. See the CCC pic, current clock settings. During GPU activity this will go up to the preset overclock.
So far I'm impressed with the results! Perhaps final drivers will yield additional gains. And I'm sure we'll see third party oc and fan adjustments. How about the shaders? No adjustment?
I was ready to pull the trigger on a GTX 280 if it launched at $499. I also considered the 260, but decided to see what kind of performance I could get for $400 bucks with ATI. I plan to sell these off when 4870 X2 arrives. It looks like I may be seeing red for a while. nV, I've thrown a few thousand dollars your way. I still like you, but if ATI is pulling it together, I'm gonna support them for at least a generation.
Hope the info helps everyone. Here's to making an informed decision... :beer:
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